THE RECENT FLOODS IN OTAGO.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 49, 26 February 1877, Page 4

THE RECENT FLOODS IN OTAGO.

The following is condensed frora the Dunedin Evening Neios: — Hour by hour tbe immense destruction of property in all parts ofthe province, the result of the floods, is beginning to be revealed. None but those who have visited the scene of desolation and destruction which the Taieri Plain presents would credit the extent of the damage which the floods have done. Not ouly have crops been laid and swept away, or washed clean out of the ground, but cattle and sheep have been drowned by the score, bridges have baen washed away, roads have been cut up, culverts burst, watercourses enlarged, audjin many instances families were driven frora their bouseß, and their furnishings bave befen completely destroyed or lo9t. The desolation that meets the eye at every turn is heart-sickening,and they are brave spirits who, suffering as the farmers -of the Taieri Plain have done during the past week, can still " put tbeir hands to the plough" and look forward, hoping only for the best. . . The labor of years has in many .instances been undone in a night, and farms which but ten days ago promised £o yield their owners the means of subsistence ■- for twelve months, as well as add to the natural wealth of the colony, are today a pitiable scene of wreckage. , . The damage in the Taieri is variously estimated in value at from £35,000 to £50,000. Tbe destruction ou the Dunedin Clutha line of railway appears to be very serious, and from Greytown to C^aihola, in many places the ballast bas been washed clean away from the sleepers..;, At Allan's Swamp the, railway embankment is completely washed away for about ten chains. The runh of water was so great that it has bent the rails into all sorts of shapes, and they and the sleepers now lie a useless mass in what was the ditch alongside of where the railway ran. At this point,Jalao, stooks of oats, cabbage-trees, rails of fences, flax-bushes, rails and sleepers are heaped together, an evidence of a too real description of the,extent of destruction that bas taken place on the plain. The Taieri Plain presents a most pitiable sight. The fields that a few days ago bespoke a rich harvest are now covered with water. Hundreds of loos of grain have been swept down the Taieri River and carried out to sea; Oa many of the farms the crops were cut and stooked at the time the rains commenced, and tbe farmers were looking forward to a lucrative harvest. Mr James BrowD, one of the oldest settlers in Otago, and a resident in the Taieri for 25 years, asserts that the flood was two feet higher than be has ever seen before. For miles nothing is to be seen but a clear sheet of water, and iiere and tbere the top of a gloomylooking cabbage tree. On the. Mosgiel road the Silver Stream Bridge is washed away, and a little . further Knott's Bridge has suffered a similar fate. On the main road from North Taieri to Dunedin, called the Half-way Bush Road, tlie bridge has bpen rendered useless, and it will cost £500 to it in repair. Another bridge over, the Silver Stream at Gibsou's, is also carried away. Mr James Sh<md's.crop3 are totally destroyed, and 1,200 of his sheep and. 45 head of his, catlle have been drowned. The damage on this one farm is' estimated at £5 000. Mr, William Shand.h'as suffered to the extent of £3,000, all his crops being an absolute loss. "Sixty acres of outs and wheat at Mr Archibald McLean's were washed clean away, and the bush settlers between Outram and Mosgiel all had to leave their homes, as the. water was three feet deep in their bouses. A splendid crop of 50; acres of wheat at Mr Malcolm Campbell's was totally destroyed j and on ': the./Meadow Bank estate the loss is estimated at £3,000, and in some places on ithe farm the water was twelve feet deep. Mr Jonathan Snow, .at Mosgiel,, whose' loss \i estimated at £500/ had 40 pcres of oats and wheat swept clean . away through the embankment giving way. On Mr Uehton's .property- ; patches of potatoes and fields of turnips were washed as bare as the road. : Mr Robert Charters . loses thirty acres of oats aad Mr John Sutherland fifty acres. At Mr Qarmichael'a, Ca number of sheep and cattle;. have been drowned, and his loss for grain' alone is over £500. On Mr John Kenton's farm tbere is yet four feet of watery and at Allen's a; hundred acres^. and at Bathgate's sixty acres of standing grain have been totally lost. Mr Norman Campbell bas iost the whole of bis crop at the North Taieri, and at the East Taieri, on Mr Stevenson's farm, the water was so high that the cattle swam over his fences to the high ground, At Mr Kirkland'sJseveDty-five heud of cattle and nine horses were drowned, and Mr Mantell has also lost a number of sheep and cattle. The death of Mr Borrie, who was drowned in attempting, to save Cooper's family, has cast a gloom over the district. After the body of the unfortunate man had been recovered, a large; jigged wound • was* discovered over the right temple. In bis attempt to save the Coopers he fell off his horse, and it : is presumed was kicked by the animal while it' was awimmiog.